the weekly musings of an over-educated young woman on writing, reading, and other miscellany

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Why Blog?

Building a writing platform is all the rage these days. A few google searches will reveal hordes of articles and, yes, blog posts on the subject (a good place to start is here). Bottom line is you can’t start soon enough to build an audience for your output, even if your creative works are but a twinkle in your eye. And I have reluctantly jumped on the bandwagon.

I am not necessarily happy about this, mind you. While the internet and social media afford people unprecedented ways to connect to and engage with others, I can’t quite convince myself that the whole “if you build it, they will come and buy your books” mentality is something a beginning writer should be concerned with as opposed to say developing your craft. Plus I really don’t want to see the publishing industry devolve any further, becoming a popularity contest where followers = book deal and prose becomes little more than loosely linked tweets. Right now, good writing still holds sway regardless of your stats, if you believe what the agents say. And that’s a good thing.

So where does this leave me and my blog? Well, I have no expectations of grandeur for this little endeavor. It is just one more tool in my arsenal, another line I include in my query letters (whenever I get to the point of sending them out). One thing I keep hearing over and over again is that you can’t really take shortcuts when it comes to writing. You have to do everything, including following all the trends to be competitive. And when the trends say use social media to your advantage, you blog, you tweet, you do what you can to demonstrate your commitment. Or so they say.

While I would love to see my name in print, I am far more interested in documenting my trials and tribulations, my insights and inspirations that result from my foray into creative writing. If this blog evolves into something more, all the better.